State: County must work to end leaks from landfill

12:24 AM,
May 11, 2013

Mac Nolen, county solid waste director, Wednesday shows one of the test wells at the Rutherford County landfill. This particular well will be checked soon to see if it is too deep to be effective. The wells are checked periodically to determine if leachate is leaking into the groundwater.

Written by

A biologist contends liquids from the county's landfills are leaking into the Stones River and wants it to stop before drinking water is contaminated.

"The leachate and runoff are not supposed to go into the river," said Marion Wells, a professor emeritus of biology with with 44 years of work at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. "I just want to help solve the problem."

Wells recently collected water samples of the river before and after it reaches the county's landfills north of Murfreesboro and upriver of the city's drinking water treatment plant, as well as the large ...